Are We at a Returning Point in Humankind’s History on Earth?
By Bill Schubart
The appearance of modern homo sapiens around 300,000 years ago led to survival tribalism. The emergence of divinity-inspired religions began in 1900 BCE with Vedic Hinduism, followed by Judaism in 1800 BCE, Buddhism in 5th Century BCE, Christianity at the dawn of the Christian Era (CE) and Islam in the 7th Century CE. Then, the Medieval Period began in 476 with the collapse of the Roman Empire and rise of regional monarchies, initially through conquest, then substantiated by the “divine right” of kings. The Enlightenment followed in the late 17th century leading to a renaissance and redefinition of earlier Greek “democracy” infused with an understanding of the “common good.”
Imagine an arc arising out of humankind’s first appearance on earth beginning with tribalism focused on survival, followed by the emergence of religions started by divinely-inspired human prophets. These religions could then become self-serving moral authorities focused on maintaining power, wealth, and control of knowledge, abetted by the rise of monarchies, in which all power is vested in the king and his chosen court of conforming acolytes.
Then came the Enlightenment, [also called “The Age of Reason,”] which offered humankind an alternative to a simplistic view of “God and King” by elevating humanity’s experiential knowledge. It gave birth to the idea that more than just oligarchs might create personal wealth. This genesis of capitalism enabled a tradesperson to create, sell, barter, and retain the value of their craft without the proceeds being seized by a king.
Succeeding centuries have brought forth a whirlwind of scientific, technical, economic and social progress that brings us to this moment in humankind’s 3000 centuries on earth. Our current era is perhaps best defined by Gaia’s challenge to her human inhabitants and the ensuing toxic impact we inflict on her air, waters, and soils in our pursuit of progress. We can only guess the next chapters.
Perhaps we are at the point where we should pause to unravel and rethink the legacy of some of the beliefs that prior eras have imposed on us.
How did religion define moral turpitude, AKA “sin”? How did monarchies justify the accretion of vast wealth with no regard for a common good?
Let’s start by reexamining the religious commandments imposed on humanity.
Raised a Catholic, I was indoctrinated with the ethos of a church already beginning to lose its grip on the young. Suicide, masturbation (“self-abuse”), abortion, gender fluidity, divorce, homosexuality, polygamy, erotic literature or images, adultery, celibacy for religious orders, polytheism, envy (admiration?) of another’s wife or possessions, and eating meat on Friday were among the many sins.
Like most states, Vermont decriminalized suicide attempts years ago and in 2013 passed Act 39, the Patient Choice and Control at the End of Life Act legalizing what some call “physician-assisted suicide” or “Death with Dignity.”
In the 11th century, Pope Gregory the VII imposed priesthood celibacy to stop priests from leaving their estates to their families and require them to leave them to the Church.
Masturbation is now understood as a naturally occurring and physically beneficial exercise across many species.
Abortion was made legal in the Roe Decision in 1973 and then again made illegal in 2022 under the Dobbs decision, ignoring the rights of women to have control over their own bodies. In time, Dobbs will almost certainly be overturned.
Vermont led the nation in 1999 when its Supreme Court asserted the right of same-sex couples to unite in Baker v. Vermont. And in 2009, the Vermont Legislature passed the Civil Unions bill allowing same-sex couples to marry legally.
Pornography has existed since humans existed, early examples were cave drawings, statuary, then painting, magazines and finally online.
Are we returning to a point in the arc of history where the emergence of “kings” is again upon us?
The genesis of modern capitalism during the Enlightenment enabled peasants to add economic value by creating and selling their goods to buy property. Community markets emerged, followed by shops. But haunted by the seductive memory of vast fortune and power, the late 19th century “robber barons” arose in this country, monarchs of capitalism run amok.
At the turn of that century, President Theodore Roosevelt introduced the “Square Deal” and the “Sherman Antitrust Act” in a regulatory effort to break up trusts and monopolies and share the wealth of the “robber barons.”
Twenty-five years later, his distant cousin, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, initiated “The New Deal” to foster and protect an emerging middleclass of American workers and slow a return to the disparity of wealth. Regulation and taxation became an integral part of legislative efforts to deter monopolies and encourage market competition as a means of letting consumer choice drive growing economic markets.
Humankind’s up-and-down history permitting the accretion of massive wealth alongside crushing poverty, then initiating efforts to reduce the wealth disparity, salvage a working middleclass, and reduce the inhuman impacts of poverty continues today as we watch another record-breaking upswing of wealth accumulation and plutocratic power alongside a steep projected increase in U.S. poverty, and the decimation of a working middle class.
Since 1983, the number of billionaires in the U.S. has grown from 15 to over 800. Ariano Campo-Flores of the Wall Street Journal recently reported that the top .01% of U.S. households now hold assets worth $23 trillion this year while the bottom 50% held less than a quarter of that at $4.2T. Elon Musk has made headlines with his successful demand for a compensation package of one trillion dollars at $100B a year.
Just as religion has been used by adherents to justify their extreme wealth, many religious institutions have amassed massive fortunes. How does the Catholic Church justify its estimated net worth of $73B when its core mission is feeding the poor and sheltering the homeless? How much would the sale of its assets and real estate do to stem the impacts of world poverty.
The concept of a wealth tax has resurfaced and is under renewed debate, even as the billionaire class exerts their political power to prevent or evade it. Might we again establish a socio-economic environment where one can work and thrive with the help of wider unionization and a progressive income tax, as we had in the Eisenhower era, or a tax on extreme assets?
A well-researched recent book by Chuck Collins entitled “Burned by Billionaires” details chapter by chapter, with supporting data, how plutocrats are destroying the environment, shifting taxes away from themselves to the middle class, diminishing affordable housing, expanding racial division, profiting from an unaffordable healthcare system, and eroding democracy.
If we are to right the economic ship, we must amend labor laws and encourage union organization, initiate changes in corporate governance to give workers more of a stake in their own employment and nullify Citizens United in order to return voice and power to citizens themselves instead of their wealthy employers.
We must invest in affordable public housing and raise the unconscionably low federal minimum wage from $7.25/hour ($15,000/year). The MIT Livable Wage Calculator sets $40.48 per hour for a working couple in Burlington, Vermont, with two children — six times federal minimum wage and almost three times Vermont’s minimum wage of $14.01.
As we examine the accepted verities of humankind’s long time on earth, we must reexamine all the evolved assumptions and question them in the light of today. When does love become jealousy? And when does a war of defense morph into a war of aggression? When does spiritual faith become self-serving orthodoxy? A basic tenet of every world religion commands us to care for the poor, the sick, the homeless, and the hungry.
But as we ask ourselves these questions, the one sacred axiom that must survive our time on earth is the critical need to protect our children from adverse childhood experiences such as neglect, hunger, homelessness, and physical and sexual abuse. Our children are our hope for the future. As we examine all the false narratives we’ve evolved, the one that must never change across the millennia is the need to protect our children.